How Good to Celebrate Both Holidays

November 30, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is the holiday season.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

A Happy Holidays poem to a child who is half Christian and half Jewish:

How good to celebrate both holidays
And double your enjoyment of the season,
Pleased to look ahead with double reason,
Pleased with memories that go both ways.
Years will give to them a deep, rich glaze.

How lucky to inherit both traditions --
One Christian and one Jewish -- and to know
Lovely rituals from long ago
In long-familiar, family-wrought renditions.
Days of winter are too short, but nights
Are filled with melodies and festive lights.
Year's end brings holidays you long will treasure,
Seasonal joys that give you lasting pleasure.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/howgoo.html. For more Happy Holidays poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/seasonsgreetingspoems.html .

This week’s theme: The Holiday Season
November 30: How Good to Celebrate Both Holidays

Thank You for Naming Yours After Our Own

November 29, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of Thanksgiving, is saying thank you.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

A thank you poem for naming someone after a deceased loved one:

Thank you for naming yours after our own,
Holding a bit of his being in place.
A name is a mask for a sojourning soul,
Nothingness left with a word for a face,
Knight of the night seeking honor alone.

Your kindness has given his memory a trace
Of the living, that he might by name still be known,
Undoing the darkness that death would make whole.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/than28.html. For more thank you poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/thankyoupoems.hmtl .

This week’s theme: Saying Thank You
November 23: Thank You All for All That You Have Done
November 24: Thank You for the Favor of Your Seed
November 25: There Is No Gift More Precious than One’s Health
November 26: Thank You for Having Faith in Me
November 27: To Me Your Life Has Been an Inspiration
November 28: Please Accept My Gratitude
November 29: Thank You for Naming Yours After Our Own

Please Accept My Gratitude

November 28, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of Thanksgiving, is saying thank you.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

A thank you poem to in-laws:

Please accept my gratitude
For being who you are.
You came along with my beloved,
The landscape of his life.

And yet I would have chosen you,
Were you not simply there.
For I twice blessed in love have proved --
As daughter and as wife.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/pleas6.html. For more thank you poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/thankyoupoems.html .

This week’s theme: Saying Thank You
November 23: Thank You All for All That You Have Done
November 24: Thank You for the Favor of Your Seed
November 25: There Is No Gift More Precious than One’s Health
November 26: Thank You for Having Faith in Me
November 27: To Me Your Life Has Been an Inspiration
November 28: Please Accept My Gratitude

To Me Your Life Has Been an Inspiration

November 27, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of Thanksgiving, is saying thank you.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

A thank you poem to an influential mentor:

To me your life has been an inspiration.
Happiness is mine because of you.
As a mountain shows our destination,
Never, in its grandeur, lost from view,
Know that you have been my moral guide.

You have shaped the one I am inside,
Opening my heart with your affection,
Underlying all I say and do.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/tomeyo.html. For more thank you poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/thankyoupoems.html .

This week’s theme: Saying Thank You
November 23: Thank You All for All That You Have Done
November 24: Thank You for the Favor of Your Seed
November 25: There Is No Gift More Precious than One’s Health
November 26: Thank You for Having Faith in Me
November 27: To Me Your Life Has Been an Inspiration

Thank You for Having Faith in Me

November 26, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of Thanksgiving, is saying thank you.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

A thank you poem from someone suffering from manic depression to a friend:

Thank you for having faith in me,
However hard it was.
An illness is compounded by
No one coming near.
Kindness can take courage when
You see what mania does.
Opening your arms to me
Unravels my own fear.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/than35.html. For more thank you poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/thankyoupoems.html .

This week’s theme: Saying Thank You
November 23: Thank You All for All That You Have Done
November 24: Thank You for the Favor of Your Seed
November 25: There Is No Gift More Precious than One’s Health
November 26: Thank You for Having Faith in Me

There Is No Gift More Precious than One's Health

November 25, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of Thanksgiving, is saying thank you.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

A thank you poem to healthcare workers:

There is no gift more precious than one's health.
Happiness must rest upon that ground.
Alight with pain, no pleasure can be found,
Nor joy in love or beauty, words or wealth.
Know that I am grateful for your skill,
Your sensitivity and dedication.
Out of strength, I dreaded all sensation
Until your healing touch restored my will.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/there4.html. For more thank you poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/thankyoupoems.html .

This week’s theme: Saying Thank You
November 23: Thank You All for All That You Have Done
November 24: Thank You for the Favor of Your Seed
November 25: There Is No Gift More Precious than One’s Health

Thank You for the Favor of Your Seed

November 24, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of Thanksgiving, is saying thank you.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

A thank you poem for a non-commercial sperm donation:

Thank you for the favor of your seed,
Half my child, who will be mine alone,
A part of you dispassionately sown,
Nor have I of you any other need.
Kindness is your only motivation,
Yet in this act you're being more than kind,
Opening a window to the wind,
Unloosing to my heart half your creation.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/than39.html. For more thank you poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/thankyoupoems.html .

This week’s theme: Saying Thank You
November 23: Thank You All for All That You Have Done
November 24: Thank You for the Favor of Your Seed

Thank You All for All That You Have Done

November 23, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of Thanksgiving, is saying thank you.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

A thank you poem from a family to family or friends for help through a difficult time:

Thank you all for all that you have done.
Hard times are now turned into times of pride.
All this we managed with you by our side,
Nor could we otherwise this course have run.
Kindness isn't tendered on demand:
You gave with love, not merely out of duty.
Our days are daily burnished by that beauty.
Upon your love we three now proudly stand.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/thank6.html. For more thank you poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/thankyoupoems.html .

This week’s theme: Saying Thank You
November 23: Thank You All for All That You Have Done

Happy Fifty-Third Anniversary

November 22, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is anniversaries.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

A fifty-third anniversary poem about how a marriage, like a river, gathers strength from a variety of tributaries:

Happy fifty-third anniversary!
As love flows on, it gathers tributaries
Pouring into the channels of the heart,
Plumes of color drawn from distant mountains,
Yielding, yearning, joining your grand journey.

Flow on, then, with renewed vitality
In which one finds an answer to one's queries,
Finds the whole of which one is a part,
The love that pours through one from distant fountains
Yet is one's bliss, one's passion, and one's beauty.

The love one feels and is flows to the sea
Holding in its arms the earth it carries,
Irrigating fields with skill and art,
Ready still to bear its precious burden
Deep into the delta of its duty.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/happ99.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Anniversaries
November 16: How Can I Tell You More than I Can Know
November 17: Have an Angel Assigned to Your Account
November 18: Happy Thirteenth Anniversary
November 19: Have Another Look at What You’ve Done
November 20: Heaven Runs a Pretty Good Hotel
November 21: Happiness Wears Ordinary Clothes
November 22: Happy Fifty-Third Anniversary

Happiness Wears Ordinary Clothes

November 21, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is anniversaries.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

A twenty-eighth anniversary poem about a couple’s need to celebrate their love:

Happiness wears ordinary clothes,
Appropriate for everyday pursuits:
Perhaps because desire comes and goes;
Perhaps because one gets mud on one's boots.
Yet one must celebrate from time to time
The happiness of ordinary days,
Whittling the wonder into rhyme,
Embracing one's prosaic life with praise.
Now let us sing the words that we would speak,
Then dance to steps through which we merely move!
Years look for the passions of a peak,
Expecting some bright blossoming of love.
If happiness must be a stable state,
Given that it must so long endure,
Here we have a day to celebrate
The choices and the chances of our fate,
Having found a grace we can secure.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/happ98.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Anniversaries
November 16: How Can I Tell You More than I Can Know
November 17: Have an Angel Assigned to Your Account
November 18: Happy Thirteenth Anniversary
November 19: Have Another Look at What You’ve Done
November 20: Heaven Runs a Pretty Good Hotel
November 21: Happiness Wears Ordinary Clothes

Heaven Runs a Pretty Good Hotel

November 20, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is anniversaries.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

A sixteenth anniversary poem about how beautifully Heaven has designed the hotel of marriage:

Heaven runs a pretty good hotel.
All is well arranged for happiness,
Placed just so, to heighten tenderness,
Placed to spirits heal and sorrows quell.
Yet some against such hostelry rebel,
So pitched on pain they see it as success,
Invested in the cause of their distress,
Xerophytes, who would in deserts dwell.
The choice is there before you every day:
Enduring love or unenduring pleasure,
Exiting the garden of your grace.
Nor is there any reason not to stay,
There being at this inn the things you treasure,
Here, where Heaven runs a pretty good place.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/heave9.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Anniversaries
November 16: How Can I Tell You More than I Can Know
November 17: Have an Angel Assigned to Your Account
November 18: Happy Thirteenth Anniversary
November 19: Have Another Look at What You’ve Done
November 20: Heaven Runs a Pretty Good Hotel

Have Another Look at What You've Done

November 19, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is anniversaries.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

A fourteenth anniversary poem about love as the antidote for the toxins of life:

Have another look at what you've done
And then rejoice at all the good you see,
Pleased with how you've whittled what might be,
Pleased with seeds you've planted one by one!
Yet there are many toxins still to come
Floating on the tides unnaturally
Out of greed or ignorance as we
Unravel mysteries of rain and sun.
Remember that the antidote is love
That one administers in every act,
Embracing life and beauty and each other.
Each act of love one poisoned drop removes,
Now by example, eloquence, or fact,
To heal some grace that else we might have lacked,
Here for all who would such gifts recover.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/havea6.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html.

This week’s theme: Anniversaries
November 16: How Can I Tell You More than I Can Know
November 17: Have an Angel Assigned to Your Account
November 18: Happy Thirteenth Anniversary
November 19: Have Another Look at What You’ve Done

Happy Thirteenth Anniversary

November 18, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is anniversaries.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

A thirteenth anniversary poem about why thirteen is actually a lucky number:

Happy thirteenth anniversary!
All our love to you this lucky day!
Pleased to say it in this musical way!
Pleased to spell it out for all to see!
Yet there are many fools who don't agree
That thirteen can be lucky, and who say,
How can Judas be lucky, who'd betray --
Ill fate! - his Lord, although his choice was free?
Remember, though, that there were twelve apostles.
The thirteenth Supper guest was Christ, not Judas.
Embrace, then, that most holy, sacred number!
Equally lucky to Chinese and Quetzalcoatl!
Nor fear the coming year, nor hope encumber,
To surrender to such superstitious nonsense,
Happily together, come what may!

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/happyt.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html.

This week’s theme: Anniversaries
November 16: How Can I Tell You More than I Can Know
November 17: Have an Angel Assigned to Your Account
November 18: Happy Thirteenth Anniversary

Have an Angel Assigned to Your Account

November 17, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is anniversaries.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

An eleventh anniversary poem imagining a customer-service angel on call:

Have an angel assigned to your account,
A customer-service angel with wide wings,
Pleased to whittle mountains as he sings,
Paring them to hills you can surmount.
You simply dial his number. He appears
Every time you call him from the heart,
Letting love decipher your joint chart,
Embracing the familiars of your fears.
Vest in him your unrecorded dreams;
Entrust to him the hopes you gave up hoping,
Needing capital to keep on coping,
Trying to reach ends bereft of means.
Heaven does look after you, it seems.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/havean.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html.

This week’s theme: Anniversaries
November 16: How Can I Tell You More than I Can Know
November 17: Have an Angel Assigned to Your Account

How Can I Tell You More than I Can Know

November 16, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is anniversaries.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

An anniversary poem from a child to his or her parents:

How can I tell you more than I can know?
All the oceans in me fall away.
Precious thoughts, when wild emotions blow,
Pause fleetingly, but can't prolong their stay.
You are the dual anchors of my life
As inner tides well up and then decrease;
Nor can I see you else but man and wife,
Not two but one, a single source of peace.
I need the love you harbor for each other
Very much as if it were for me:
Each day with both a father and a mother
Rests within, a quiet harmony.
So may your love continue, sweet and strong,
As beautiful as now, your whole lives long.
Remember well my love for both of you:
Your future holds the hopes of more than two.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/howca5.html. For more anniversary poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/anniversarypoems.html.

This week’s theme: Anniversaries
November 16: How Can I Tell You More than I Can Know

Fifty Is a Time of Hope and Healing

November 15, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is being fifty.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

A number poem for fifty as an age when one begins to think more immediately about death:

Fifty is a time of hope and healing,
In which one reconciles oneself with death,
Feeling grateful for the grace of feeling
The passion that ambition was concealing,
Yielding joy for the gift of every breath.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/50d.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Being Fifty
November 9: For You There Can Be No Regret
November 10: For Those Who Would Make Life a Thing of Beauty
November 11: For You It’s Been a Steep and Sometimes Tortured
November 12: Fifty Is a Moment for Reflection
November 13: Fifty’s Full of Life and Well-Tuned Vigor
November 14: Fifty Can Be Taken Well in Stride
November 15: Fifty Is a Time of Hope and Healing

Fifty Can Be Taken Well in Stride

November 14, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is being fifty.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

A number poem for fifty with advice for someone to whom life has been good:

Fifty can be taken well in stride
If one would tread but lightly on the ground;
For all the greatest goods of life abound,
The things that make one want to dance inside,
Yielding in one's smile a pinch of pride.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/50b.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Being Fifty
November 9: For You There Can Be No Regret
November 10: For Those Who Would Make Life a Thing of Beauty
November 11: For You It’s Been a Steep and Sometimes Tortured
November 12: Fifty Is a Moment for Reflection
November 13: Fifty’s Full of Life and Well-Tuned Vigor
November 14: Fifty Can Be Taken Well in Stride

Fifty's Full of Life and Well-Tuned Vigor

November 13, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is being fifty.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

A number poem for fifty for someone who is still in the prime of life:

Fifty's full of life and well-tuned vigor,
In full career across a fertile field.
Fears of night from time to time may trigger
Thoughts that an exquisite sadness yield.
Yet life is still as rich and sweet as ever.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/50.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Being Fifty
November 9: For You There Can Be No Regret
November 10: For Those Who Would Make Life a Thing of Beauty
November 11: For You It’s Been a Steep and Sometimes Tortured
November 12: Fifty Is a Moment for Reflection
November 13: Fifty’s Full of Life and Well-Tuned Vigor

Fifty Is a Moment for Reflection

November 12, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is being fifty.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

A number poem for fifty about the milestone as a time for reflection:

Fifty is a moment for reflection
In which one can look back upon one's past
Feeling both estrangement and affection,
The longing that one finds in recollection,
Yearning ever for what cannot last.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/50g.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Being Fifty
November 9: For You There Can Be No Regret
November 10: For Those Who Would Make Life a Thing of Beauty
November 11: For You It’s Been a Steep and Sometimes Tortured
November 12: Fifty Is a Moment for Reflection

For You It's Been a Steep and Sometimes Tortured

November 11, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is being fifty.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

A number poem for fifty for someone who has come through a rough period:

For you it's been a steep and sometimes tortured
Incline to this long and lovely view,
Far enough to take a breath or two.
The sturm und drang you've climbed through is now scattered,
Yielding to a calm, translucent blue.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/fory16.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Being Fifty
November 9: For You There Can Be No Regret
November 10: For Those Who Would Make Life a Thing of Beauty
November 11: For You It’s Been a Steep and Sometimes Tortured

For Those Who Would Make Life a Thing of Beauty

November 10, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is being fifty.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

A number poem for fifty for those who have devoted their lives to art:

For those who would make life a thing of beauty,
Invested deeply in some complex art,
Fine tuning the perceptions of the heart,
There is no boundary between joy and duty,
Yielding grace from which one would not part.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/forth3.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Being Fifty
November 9: For You There Can Be No Regret
November 10: For Those Who Would Make Life a Thing of Beauty

For You There Can Be No Regret

November 9, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is being fifty.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

A number poem for fifty for someone whose actions have been motivated by love:

For you there can be no regret:
In every act there's love.
From this granitic parapet
The view is beautiful, and yet
You yearn, by time's tears moved.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/fory15.html. For more number poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/numberpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Being Fifty
November 9: For You There Can Be No Regret

Take Me to Your Leader

November 8, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Election Day (USA), which takes place this year on Nov. 3.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

A political poem about inter-galactic imperialism:

Take me to your leader
And tell her I am here
For mutual enrichment.
You have no cause for fear.

Your planet contains minerals
Of which we are in need,
For which we will pay handsomely.
We come not out of greed.

We come for trade and friendship
From the Emperor
Who rules the peaceful universe,
The Pax Galactica.

And since we have an army
Far more advanced than yours,
We offer our assistance
To end your endless wars

And make for our investments
A canopy of peace.
It is in both our interests
That all these conflicts cease.

We offer you a culture
Of worlds beyond your sight
To bring you out of darkness
And lift you into light;

To civilize your values,
Enlighten your beliefs,
Disable your diseases,
Ameliorate your griefs ...

Oh, yes, those are my warships
Circling your sky.
Mere precaution - I don't know
What some of you might try.

Rest assured, we come in peace --
The planet of our birth?
Oh, long ago, so long ago,
It was the planet Earth.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/takeme.html. For more political poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Politics
November 2: Election Day Seems Sometimes like Which Crook
November 3: Elections Bring Regime Change
November 4: Graduation Means that Now You Must
November 5: Peace Is Not the Product of Despair
November 6: The Fire of Love
November 7: Terror Must Be Beaten Back by Justice
November 8: Take Me to Your Leader

Terror Must Be Beaten Back by Justice

November 7, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Election Day (USA), which takes place this year on Nov. 3.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

A political poem about the best way to deal with terror:

Terror must be beaten back by justice.
Evil's antidote must be the good:
Restoring order with both tooth and law,
Restraining passion with both hope and awe,
Opening to all what world we would,
Resolute, reasonable, relentless.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/terror.html. For more political poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Politics
November 2: Election Day Seems Sometimes like Which Crook
November 3: Elections Bring Regime Change
November 4: Graduation Means that Now You Must
November 5: Peace Is Not the Product of Despair
November 6: The Fire of Love
November 7: Terror Must Be Beaten Back by Justice

The Fire of Love

November 6, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Election Day (USA), which takes place this year on Nov. 3.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

A political poem about the need in politics for love:

America is ever being born.
Innocence is its identity.
It must be free to dream, or it will die,
And with it, the world's still breaking, anguished heart.

Becoming, becoming, always becoming,
A land that will be far more than has been.
Beginning, beginning, always beginning,
Unwilling to settle for sorrow or sin.

Ought the root of politics be love?
How else might the nation live and prosper?
Every vote should be a vote for love.
Every law should be a law for love.

Loving is a policy
That serves the interest of the State,
For love will always answer love,
While hate can only stir up hate.

How beautiful, the anger at injustice!
Like a torch, it lights our darkened way.
Without it, we are waiting for the wind.
With it, we walk on through moonless nights.

Let us never lose our anger!
Let it be the fire of love!
Burning, yearning, learning, turning,
Moving hearts that would not move.

The limit of the possible
Is not a border wall.
It is, instead, a boundary
Accessible to all.

Let us cross it, you and I,
And build our world anew!
Again, again, closing in
On what is good and true.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/thefir.html. For more political poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Politics
November 2: Election Day Seems Sometimes like Which Crook
November 3: Elections Bring Regime Change
November 4: Graduation Means that Now You Must
November 5: Peace Is Not the Product of Despair
November 6: The Fire of Love

Peace Is Not the Product of Despair

November 5, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Election Day (USA), which takes place this year on Nov. 3.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

A political Passover poem about the need for unused strength to bring about peace:

Peace is not the product of despair.
An army's most invincible least used.
Strength engenders weakness when abused,
Serving best by merely being there.
One conquers in the end by being just,
Vanquishing the conscience with the right.
Each child that's passed over in the night
Restores just one-half bullet's worth of trust.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/peace2.html. For more political poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics
November 2: Election Day Seems Sometimes like Which Crook
November 3: Elections Bring Regime Change
November 4: Graduation Means that Now You Must
November 5: Peace Is Not the Product of Despair

Graduation Means that Now You Must

November 4, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Election Day (USA), which takes place this year on Nov. 3.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

A political graduation poem about the burden of student debt:

Graduation means that now you must
Repay the debt so innocently incurred,
Although the final tally seems absurd,
Demanding more than you consider just.
Unwillingly you had to make your bed
And now must lie in it, though we are all
The better for your choice. We like to call
Individual what is instead
Our common good. We feed on your success,
Nor can we be unscathed by your distress.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/grad11.html. For more political poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics
November 2: Election Day Seems Sometimes like Which Crook
November 3: Elections Bring Regime Change
November 4: Graduation Means that Now You Must

Elections Bring Regime Change

November 3, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Election Day (USA), which takes place this year on Nov. 3.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

An Election Day poem about the importance of a peaceful change of power:

Elections bring regime change, even though
Little seems to change but the regimes.
Energetic leaders come and go.
Change is far more daunting than it seems.
This is due to what elections do:
In counting votes, they sum not some but all,
Of which no cook could make a tasty stew,
Nor architect an arch that would not fall.
Demands of opposite intent demand
A compromise constrained, complex, and bland.
Yet such will ever violence forestall.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/elect2.html. For more Election Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/electiondaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics
November 2: Election Day Seems Sometimes like Which Crook
November 3: Elections Bring Regime Change

Election Day Seems Sometimes like Which Crook

November 2, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Election Day (USA), which takes place this year on Nov. 3.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

An Election Day poem about the importance of voting even when both sides seem corrupt:

Election Day seems sometimes like which crook
Leaves just a slightly less repulsive taste.
Each day the ugly, money-sucking waste
Creates an urge to give 'em all the hook.
There are, of course, many who have died
In defense of this most precious right,
Opening their bodies to the night,
Not bred to have their dignity denied.
Do, then, for their sake more closely look
At each contestant, though with Lysol laced.
Your vote affirms your power to decide.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/electi.html. For more Election Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/electiondaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics
November 2: Election Day Seems Sometimes like Which Crook

Holiness Is Never Wholly Holy

November 1, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week, in honor of Halloween, is the spirit.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

A Halloween poem about the questionable distinction between the holy and the profane:

Holiness is never wholly holy.
All is all - an angel or a flea,
Loved and deeply cherished equally,
Loved as though all love embraced them only.
One is just as sacred as a gnat,
Well loved, just as well loved as a thief,
Existing far beyond one's joy or grief,
Embraced by love that dances past belief.
Nor does one need more than the thought of that.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/holin3.html. For more Halloween poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/halloweenpoems.html .

This week’s theme: The Spirit
October 26: Hear, O Spirits! The World, the World Is One
October 27: Here Is So Much More than Here
October 28: Hell Does Not Admit Those Who Are Loved
October 29: Have a Little Sunshine in Your Heart
October 30: Hopes Last Longer than Their Disappointments
October 31: Have a Tiny Tidbit of Despair
November 1: Holiness Is Never Wholly Holy